Bahá’u’lláh

Consider the past. How many, both high and
low, have, at all times, yearningly awaited the advent
of the Manifestations of God in the sanctified persons
of His chosen Ones. How often have they expected
His coming, how frequently have they prayed
that the breeze of Divine mercy might blow, and the
promised Beauty step forth from behind the veil of
concealment, and be made manifest to all the world.
And whensoever the portals of grace did open, and
the clouds of divine bounty did rain upon mankind,
and the light of the Unseen did shine above the horizon
of celestial might, they all denied Him, and
turned away from His face—the face of God Himself….

Reflect, what could have been the motive for such
deeds? What could have prompted such behavior
towards the Revealers of the beauty of the All-Glorious?
Whatever in days gone by hath been the cause
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of the denial and opposition of those people hath now
led to the perversity of the people of this age. To
maintain that the testimony of Providence was incomplete,
that it hath therefore been the cause of the
denial of the people, is but open blasphemy. How far
from the grace of the All-Bountiful and from His
loving providence and tender mercies it is to single
out a soul from amongst all men for the guidance of
His creatures, and, on one hand, to withhold from
Him the full measure of His divine testimony, and,
on the other, inflict severe retribution on His people
for having turned away from His chosen One! Nay,
the manifold bounties of the Lord of all beings have,
at all times, through the Manifestations of His Divine
Essence, encompassed the earth and all that dwell
therein. Not for a moment hath His grace been withheld,
nor have the showers of His loving-kindness
ceased to rain upon mankind. Consequently, such behavior
can be attributed to naught save the petty-mindedness
of such souls as tread the valley of arrogance
and pride, are lost in the wilds of remoteness,
walk in the ways of their idle fancy, and follow the
dictates of the leaders of their faith. Their chief concern
is mere opposition; their sole desire is to ignore
the truth. Unto every discerning observer it is evident
and manifest that had these people in the days
of each of the Manifestations of the Sun of Truth
sanctified their eyes, their ears, and their hearts from
whatever they had seen, heard, and felt, they surely
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would not have been deprived of beholding the
beauty of God, nor strayed far from the habitations
of glory. But having weighed the testimony of God
by the standard of their own knowledge, gleaned
from the teachings of the leaders of their faith, and
found it at variance with their limited understanding,
they arose to perpetrate such unseemly acts….

Consider Moses! Armed with the rod of celestial
dominion, adorned with the white hand of Divine
knowledge, and proceeding from the Párán of the
love of God, and wielding the serpent of power and
everlasting majesty, He shone forth from the Sinai
of light upon the world. He summoned all the peoples
and kindreds of the earth to the kingdom of eternity,
and invited them to partake of the fruit of the
tree of faithfulness. Surely you are aware of the fierce
opposition of Pharaoh and his people, and of the
stones of idle fancy which the hands of infidels cast
upon that blessed Tree. So much so that Pharaoh and
his people finally arose and exerted their utmost endeavor
to extinguish with the waters of falsehood and
denial the fire of that sacred Tree, oblivious of the
truth that no earthly water can quench the flames of
Divine wisdom, nor mortal blasts extinguish the lamp
of everlasting dominion. Nay, rather, such water cannot
but intensify the burning of the flame, and such
blasts cannot but ensure the preservation of the lamp,
were ye to observe with the eye of discernment, and
walk in the way of God’s holy will and pleasure….
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And when the days of Moses were ended, and the
light of Jesus, shining forth from the Day Spring of
the Spirit, encompassed the world, all the people of
Israel arose in protest against Him. They clamored
that He Whose advent the Bible had foretold must
needs promulgate and fulfil the laws of Moses,
whereas this youthful Nazarene, who laid claim to
the station of the divine Messiah, had annulled the
laws of divorce and of the sabbath day—the most
weighty of all the laws of Moses. Moreover, what of
the signs of the Manifestation yet to come? These
people of Israel are even unto the present day still
expecting that Manifestation which the Bible hath
foretold! How many Manifestations of Holiness, how
many Revealers of the light everlasting, have appeared
since the time of Moses, and yet Israel, wrapt
in the densest veils of satanic fancy and false imaginings,
is still expectant that the idol of her own handiwork
will appear with such signs as she herself hath
conceived! Thus hath God laid hold of them for their
sins, hath extinguished in them the spirit of faith,
and tormented them with the flames of the nethermost
fire. And this for no other reason except that
Israel refused to apprehend the meaning of such
words as have been revealed in the Bible concerning
the signs of the coming Revelation. As she never
grasped their true significance, and, to outward seeming,
such events never came to pass, she, therefore,
remained deprived of recognizing the beauty of Jesus
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and of beholding the Face of God. And they still
await His coming! From time immemorial even unto
this day, all the kindreds and peoples of the earth have
clung to such fanciful and unseemly thoughts, and
thus have deprived themselves of the clear waters
streaming from the springs of purity and holiness….

To them that are endowed with understanding, it
is clear and manifest that, when the fire of the love
of Jesus consumed the veils of Jewish limitations, and
His authority was made apparent and partially enforced,
He, the Revealer of the unseen Beauty, addressing
one day His disciples, referred unto His passing,
and, kindling in their hearts the fire of
bereavement, said unto them: “I go away and come
again unto you.” And in another place He said: “I
go and another will come, Who will tell you all that
I have not told you, and will fulfil all that I have
said.” Both these sayings have but one meaning, were
ye to ponder upon the Manifestations of the Unity
of God with Divine insight.

Every discerning observer will recognize that in
the Dispensation of the Qur’án both the Book and
the Cause of Jesus were confirmed. As to the matter
of names, Muḥammad, Himself, declared: “I am
Jesus.” He recognized the truth of the signs, prophecies,
and words of Jesus, and testified that they were
all of God. In this sense, neither the person of Jesus
nor His writings hath differed from that of Muḥammad
and of His holy Book, inasmuch as both have
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championed the Cause of God, uttered His praise,
and revealed His commandments. Thus it is that
Jesus, Himself, declared: “I go away and come again
unto you.” Consider the sun. Were it to say now, “I
am the sun of yesterday,” it would speak the truth.
And should it, bearing the sequence of time in mind,
claim to be other than that sun, it still would speak
the truth. In like manner, if it be said that all the
days are but one and the same, it is correct and true.
And if it be said, with respect to their particular
names and designations, that they differ, that again is
true. For though they are the same, yet one doth
recognize in each a separate designation, a specific
attribute, a particular character. Conceive accordingly
the distinction, variation, and unity characteristic
of the various Manifestations of holiness, that
thou mayest comprehend the allusions made by the
Creator of all names and attributes to the mysteries
of distinction and unity, and discover the answer to
thy question as to why that everlasting Beauty should
have, at sundry times, called Himself by different
names and titles….

When the Unseen, the Eternal, the Divine Essence,
caused the Day Star of Muḥammad to rise above the
horizon of knowledge, among the cavils which the
Jewish divines raised against Him was that after
Moses no Prophet should be sent of God. Yea, mention
hath been made in the Scriptures of a Soul Who
must needs be made manifest and Who will advance
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the Faith, and promote the interests of the people of
Moses, so that the Law of the Mosaic Dispensation
may encompass the whole earth. Thus hath the King
of eternal glory referred in His Book to the words uttered
by those wanderers in the vale of remoteness
and error: “‘The hand of God,’ say the Jews, ‘is
chained up.’ Chained up be their own hands; And
for that which they have said, they were accursed.
Nay, outstretched are both His hands!” “The hand
of God is above their hands.” Although the commentators
of the Qur’án have related in divers manners
the circumstances attending the revelation of this
verse, yet thou shouldst endeavor to apprehend the
purpose thereof. He saith: How false is that which
the Jews have imagined! How can the hand of Him
Who is the King in truth, Who caused the countenance
of Moses to be made manifest, and conferred
upon Him the robe of Prophethood—how can the
hand of such a One be chained and fettered? How
can He be conceived as powerless to raise up yet another
Messenger after Moses? Behold the absurdity
of their saying; how far it hath strayed from the path
of knowledge and understanding! Observe how in
this Day also, all these people have occupied themselves
with such foolish absurdities. For over a thousand
years they have been reciting this verse, and unwittingly
pronouncing their censure against the Jews,
utterly unaware that they themselves, openly and
privily, are voicing the sentiments and belief of the
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Jewish people! Thou art surely aware of their idle
contention, that all Revelation is ended, that the
portals of Divine mercy are closed, that from the
day springs of eternal holiness no Sun shall rise again,
that the Ocean of everlasting bounty is forever
stilled, and that out of the Tabernacle of ancient
glory the Messengers of God have ceased to be made
manifest. Such is the measure of the understanding
of these small-minded, contemptible people. These
people have imagined that the flow of God’s all-encompassing
grace and plenteous mercies, the cessation
of which no mind can contemplate, has been
halted. From every side they have risen and girded
up the loins of tyranny, and exerted the utmost endeavor
to quench with the bitter waters of their vain
fancy the flame of God’s Burning Bush, oblivious that
the globe of power shall, within its own mighty
stronghold, protect the Lamp of God….

Behold how the sovereignty of Muḥammad, the
Messenger of God, is today apparent and manifest
amongst the people. You are well aware of what befell
His Faith in the early days of His Dispensation.
What woeful sufferings did the hand of the infidel
and erring, the divines of that age and their associates,
inflict upon that spiritual Essence, that most pure
and holy Being! How abundant the thorns and briars
which they have strewn over His path! It is evident
that that wretched generation, in their wicked and
satanic fancy, regarded every injury to that immortal
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Being as a means to the attainment of an abiding
felicity; inasmuch as the recognized divines of that
age, such as ‘Abdu’lláh-i-Ubayy, Abú’Amír, the hermit,
Ka’b-ibn-i-Ashraf, and Nadr-ibn-i-Hárith, all
treated Him as an impostor, and pronounced Him a
lunatic and a calumniator. Such sore accusations they
brought against Him that in recounting them God
forbiddeth the ink to flow, Our pen to move, or the
page to bear them. These malicious imputations provoked
the people to arise and torment Him. And how
fierce that torment, if the divines of the age be its
chief instigators, if they denounce Him to their followers,
cast Him out from their midst, and declare
Him a miscreant! Hath not the same befallen this
Servant, and been witnessed by all?

For this reason did Muḥammad cry out: “No
Prophet of God hath suffered such harm as I have
suffered.” And in the Qur’án are recorded all the
calumnies and reproaches uttered against Him, as
well as all the afflictions which He suffered. Refer ye
thereunto, that haply ye may be informed of that
which hath befallen His Revelation. So grievous was
His plight, that for a time all ceased to hold intercourse
with Him and His companions. Whoever associated
with Him fell a victim to the relentless
cruelty of His enemies….

Consider, how great is the change today! Behold,
how many are the Sovereigns who bow the knee before
His name! How numerous the nations and kingdoms
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who have sought the shelter of His shadow,
who bear allegiance to His Faith, and pride themselves
therein! From the pulpit-top there ascendeth
today the words of praise which, in utter lowliness,
glorify His blessed name; and from the heights of
minarets there resoundeth the call that summoneth
the concourse of His people to adore Him. Even those
Kings of the earth who have refused to embrace His
Faith and to put off the garment of unbelief, none-the-less
confess and acknowledge the greatness and
overpowering majesty of that Day Star of loving-kindness.
Such is His earthly sovereignty, the evidences
of which thou dost on every side behold. This
sovereignty must needs be revealed and established
either in the lifetime of every Manifestation of God
or after His ascension unto His true habitation in the
realms above….

It is evident that the changes brought about in
every Dispensation constitute the dark clouds
that intervene between the eye of man’s understanding
and the Divine Luminary which shineth
forth from the day spring of the Divine Essence.
Consider how men for generations have
been blindly imitating their fathers, and have
been trained according to such ways and manners
as have been laid down by the dictates of
their Faith. Were these men, therefore, to discover
suddenly that a Man, Who hath been living in their
midst, Who, with respect to every human limitation
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hath been their equal, had risen to abolish every established
principle imposed by their Faith—principles by
which for centuries they have been disciplined, and
every opposer and denier of which they have come to
regard as infidel, profligate and wicked,—they would
of a certainty be veiled and hindered from acknowledging
His truth. Such things are as “clouds” that
veil the eyes of those whose inner being hath not
tasted the Salsabíl of detachment, nor drunk from
the Kawthar of the knowledge of God. Such men,
when acquainted with those circumstances, become
so veiled that, without the least question, they pronounce
the Manifestation of God as infidel, and sentence
Him to death. You must have heard of such
things taking place all down the ages, and are now
observing them in these days.

It behoveth us, therefore, to make the utmost endeavor,
that, by God’s invisible assistance, these dark
veils, these clouds of Heaven-sent trials, may not hinder
us from beholding the beauty of His shining
Countenance, and that we may recognize Him only
by His own Self.